Bethesda has a good formula when it comes to E3 announcements- they only reveal games that will be releasing before the next E3. Except for 2018, Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard dropped two bombshells that we will not see anytime soon.
The games in question are Starfield, the developers first new IP for decades, and the much-expected The Elder Scrolls VI, the follow-up to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Both games were revealed with only a teaser trailer and Howard confirmed on stage that the next game to be in development form them after the multiplayer-focused Fallout 76 is Starfield and after that, The Elder Scrolls VI.
Speaking to Eurogamer at Gamelab in Spain, Howard explained how the decision was made to announce the two games earlier than expected. There was definitely internal debate on it, but the main crux was that Bethesda are announcing two new games on their most familiar IP- Elder Scrolls and Fallout- but neither featuring the familiar single-player open world RPG (-ish) experience.
“..We’re going to E3 and showing a new Fallout game [Fallout 76] which is very different than we usually do, and then we’re going to show you an Elder Scrolls game [Elder Scrolls: Blade- a mobile game] that is very different than we would usually do, and if we leave it just at that, our fans are like, ‘… – Are you still going to do the things I love?’
But Elder Scrolls VI is already an open secret and the name Starfield has been floating about in the rumour mill since at least last year already. “We had already said publicly, ‘We are eventually going to do Elder Scrolls 6 but we have these other projects’,” Howard added.
“And we felt like we would be saying that same thing right after E3 at something like this [Gamelab], so let’s make sure our fans know this is coming, and in what order. They don’t know what years – we have some ideas but we’re not positive either – but ‘here are the things we’re going to be doing’.”
Howard has anticipated some setbacks from announcing these games early, some that the team will discover along the way. But so far, the reveals may be a positive one- the Starfield teaser has 1.2 million views on YouTube at the time of writing and for The Elder Scrolls VI, 6.4 million. Interest on a single-player open world RPG (-ish) from Bethesda Game Studios is high.
Starfield was described as a game for the “next generation” at E3. At Gamelab, it was clarified that it may be released on the current consoles as well as next-generation consoles. Elder Scrolls VI is still far in the horizon, but Howard has confirmed that a setting for the game has been decided, just not to be revealed just yet.
Source: Eurogamer